the hubs and i have been tossing around the idea of switching from spring calving to fall calving...aside from the occasional heifer we have calved in the fall, not much experience with fall calvers...
looking for pro's and con's, things to expect calving in the fall, any differences between the two, different management practices, etc.
this year we are calving jan-april...aside from a few strays...more strung out than i like, so im thinking this might also be an opportunity to get them gathered back up into a tighter calving season
thanks in advance
we calve everything in the fall in IL- despite not having the western fall steer calf market.. We have one cow worked onto a spring calving cycle, only due to her not getting bred on time 2 years ago.
fall calving pros:
odd time of the year, so when calves get weaned (when grass is getting on strong) the market isn't much for supply.. It's been several years since we've sold for less than $1. pound.. last spring we sold for close to $2.
You have to feed your cows through the winter, so why not have a calf on them?
Our sheds were always full in Jan- Mar-- with ewes lambing... so we calve in Aug and Sept out in the pasture.
The fall calves seem to grow better through the summer with their added size, than those on mama... If you are short on pasture to begin with, this way you don't have to feed a bunch of calves if you don't want. We also creep our calves through the winter-- meaning we don't hardly feed the old cows as much as usual. I think, we normally fed about one round bale (6x5) per cow a month in previous years, and this year we kicked them out to stalks, and have reduced that in half (calves on them).
fall calving cons: a few months of lack of production so to say on the cows, while switching them over... but honestly no different than having hard breeding cows.
all in all.. more people are switching over to fall calving. My neighbor has about 500 Sim cows, and he's got over 400 of them calving in the fall now.. This has been switched to the opposite of about 24 months ago.